A real hope home

by Daria Napieraj, 2013/12/17

Time and again, the 26-year-old student Daria Napieraj from Duisburg has taken a break from her student’s life, in order to work as a media coordinator for humedica in different crisis regions of the world. At the moment, she is visiting the family sponsorship program on Haiti, together with humedica member of staff Maren Walter. On her blog she reports about her experiences in this country and with its inhabitants and of the work of humedica in this Caribbean island nation.

Day 6 and 7 on Haiti

Since the earthquake in 2010, humedica has been cooperating in different areas with the Haitian organization Fondation pour les enfants d’Haiti. This association has been active on Haiti since 1981 and especially manages orphanages and schools. But the humedica partner hospital Hôpital Espoir is being managed by this association.

This weekend, we are visiting the orphanage Village Espoir. There are more than 70 children, who live together in family-like groups. In each of these groups, there is a housemother, who looks after the children’s needs the whole week long, who eats with them, and plays with them and who stays overnight as well.

Most of the orphans are very open-minded. They are running around us, inspect our humedica IDs, want to hold our hands and accompany us on our round through their home.

The day nannies care lovingly for the children in the Hope Home. Photo: humedica/Daria Napieraj

Part of the Village Espoir is a nursing home for seriously disabled children, which is called Hope Home. At the moment, 28 children and young adults live there. Some typical disease patterns of these nursing home residents are complex handicaps like cerebral palsy or brain abnormalities.

Like in the affiliated orphanage, housemothers are also looking after the children here and they try to offer them a family-like life. Moreover, voluntary helpers from all over the world support the Hope Home.

While the younger children of the orphanage and of the nursing home can be taught in the few free rooms of the complex, the elder ones must travel through Port-au-Prince for up to two hours, in order to get to school.

That is why humedica is building a new school on the ground of the Village Espoir, in cooperation with the partner organization FEH and Bild hilft e.V. . In this new building the residents of the orphanage and of the nursing home can be taught, as well as the children in the neighborhood.

Thus, all the children of the Village Espoir can go to school together, without this tiring and long way to school. Moreover, the educational offerings in this part of the town are being broadened and so the children from the surrounding communities can profit from it, too. A great thing!

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